Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Well, I guess I was a little late getting ready to go to the party. I didn't think I was going to take part in Socktoberfest this year because I was so busy with Christmas knits, but I saw Kelly'sInterlocking Leaves socks on Knitty and I had this Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn that I bought in Montreal calling out to me. They seemed like a really good match so I cast on for some Socktoberfest socks on October 23.Pattern: Interlocking Leaves by Kelly Porpiglia (rav)Materials: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Merino in JavaNeedles: 2.5 mm addi turbosStarted: October 23, 2008Finished: November 16, 2008Raveled hereI really couldn't be happier with these socks. The pattern is just beautiful and so perfect for fall. It reminds me of crunchy brown leaves -- something I haven't seen much with the wet weather we've had. All that's left are soggy leaves and I don't really want to knit anything that evokes that image.

The socks aren't for me. They're a Christmas present for someone who is totally oblivious! Heh heh.

Monday, November 10, 2008

I signed up for the Holiday Ornament Swap hosted by freshly{blended} and cake & pie last week. I thought I would sew some kind of Christmas tree with a nice star-shaped button at the top, but I changed my mind when I saw this ornament in Martha's special Handmade Christmas magazine at Sherrie's house on Saturday. Sherrie told me that Wal-Mart carries Martha's glitter, so I took a rare trip out to Wal-Mart and filled my basket with glittery goodness.

And then I got to work. I made the cinnamon dough and cut out 18 cardinals from Martha's template. Once the birds were dry, I sketched out an outline of each coloured section with a blue chalk pencil (you can still see some of the blue on the bird below) and started gluing and glittery and gluing and glittering.It took me two days to finish them all, mostly because I had to wait so long in between each glittery colour, but I'm so happy with them. I made way more than I'll need for the swap because I want to keep a few and give some away as Christmas gifts.